Various computer systems interact with users over a network. A computer system can provide services, functionality, or other features to a user. An example computer system can be a financial brokerage website, where users can enter trade orders and verify account balances. Another example computer system can be a domain name registration website, where users can register a requested domain name.
Before interacting with a computer system, a user can be required to create a user account by providing personal information, such as a username/password pair, contact information, and any other information required by the computer system.
User contact information can include telephone numbers. Such telephone numbers can be checked for formatting. For example, the computer system can flag an error if a U.S. telephone does not include a three-digit area code and a seven-digit phone number. The computer system can also check whether the three-digit area code or the seven-digit phone numbers are in a list of known valid numbers.
Alternatively, a user telephone number can be entered by a system operator, for example, after examining physical evidence of the user's ownership or access to the telephone number. For example, a brokerage website may require a broker verify a customer's telephone number before accepting.
In previous computer systems, there was no easy method of automatically verifying the telephone number as a valid number to reach the user.
Therefore, a need exists to utilize a first secure communication channel, such as the Internet to automatically authenticate a second communication channel, such as a telephone.